DOWN
1 Women's stories where nurse is murdered with garden equipment (7) SHOVELS {SHe}{nOVELS}
2 Religion had four parts to devote attention to (9) CULTIVATE {CULT}{IV}{ATE}
3 Once in a while oldie eats pine fruit (6) LITCHI {ITCH} in {oLdIe}

I am really surprised. What makes this puzzle more difficult than any on previous days?It seems that setters will alwys be groping over fixing the difficulty level of a puzzle.I have said that I can never set out with the aim of making a puzzle 'hard'.I make puzzles... solvers find some 'easy', some 'hard'. What some solvers find 'easy' others don't and vice versa.

True. But there is also an average or middle, as far as the solvers are concerned. I cannot suddenly become brilliant overnight. But I feel setters have some control over the difficulty level, either in choice of words or clueing. I was about to type +1 for MB when I read your comment. Our opinions are shared be earlier commenters as well.

Please click the link underlined nurse...Under the heading Worldwide Australia... you will find that Nurse means Enrolled Nurse i.e EN.In the clue she I mean the nurse has been murdered...so delete E & N from SHe nOVELS to get SHOVELS!

ok.. i found todays xword very very hard to crack.. was very distracted to add to my cup a woes :) missed weed (which is obvious now i see it).. mainly coz i had doggish as anguish .. could not parse shovels and thresh.. thanks for that :) thresh is a very good clue.. but shovels i find it iffy ... too many subsitution and take aways.. skysails, epiphyte would not have got without help, as words i didnt know existed :)in spades meaning without doubt is also new.. always thought it meant uhmm.. in large quantities without discrimination :) so IMO excepting doggish and shovels a pretty fair xword from scintillator :)

*** Deepak, if I may be allowed a plug... Friends,Jewels and Other Storiesby CharukesiTranslated from Tamil by C. G. RishikeshThis book, published privately, was released at a function in Chennai a couple of days ago. Priced at Rs. 120, it can be had at Rs 100 after an applicable discount. All but a few copies of the printed copies were sold out on that day itself. Some stray copies may be available.The entire proceeds from book sales go to a charity organisation that trains special children in music. Anyone interested, please write to chaturvasi@yahoo.comAs only few copies remain, availability on a first come, first served basis. Out-of-station (Chennai) orders will have to bear Speedpost charges.I will serve the order. Money transfer can be done to me after you receive the book.

Re 25A, I believe there are two interesting issues here: 1) appropriate tense of wordplay components and 2) punctuation in wordplay.

On 1), I see two acceptable scenarios: either use the present tense (simple or progressive) or let the tense be elided. The simple present is quite common, and appropriate, as facts and general truths have to be described in this tense ("Component A covers Component B in answer" is a "general truth"). The present progressive (A covering B) is also used in good measure. Alternatively, the explicit tense could be elided: In (A has to cover B in answer), the clue is a phrase rather than a sentence, and the 'has' must be added in order to complete the sentence. This is also common: we use (A B removed) to actually mean (A, B is removed).

In contrast, the simple past tense is not appropriate as the tense of wordplay. To quote Richard Rogan, the Times Crossword editor, "The simple past tense merely tells a story, which seems odd in the context of cryptic wordplay." Imagine a line from a chemistry textbook: "The solute dissolved in water to form a solution.", as opposed to "The solute dissolves in water to form a solution." Thus, "SING penned WELL" is not a grammatically correct wordplay for SWELLING.

Coming to the second issue on punctuation, I believe in general there is a lot of flexibility available in the wordplay with regard to punctuation. In a game where solvers are regularly asked to ignore punctuation in wordplay, what is wrong in accepting an elision of a comma? If one is fine with (A B removed) to mean (A, B is removed), (A penned B) to mean (With A penned, B) should be fine too, no?